The Nightmare's Return

Chapter 13

They first stopped at Rachel's school where she got an attendant to use a skeleton key to open it up, using the excuse of going to join some friends in an extended vacation, and lost her key at a party. Even though the attendant didn't recognize her because of the spell Mr. Tophat had cast, Rachel's knowledge of the number of her dorm room, her kindness, and her assurance that everything in the room would be exactly as how she described it all being in it when they got there, got the attendant to open her door. When the attendant saw that everything in the room was just how Rachel described it, he left her to herself and went back to his place in the front of the lobby of the dorm. Rachel went to her closet and pushed back her clothes that were hanging on the top bar until she came to a jacket with pockets on it. She pulled a small purse out of one of the pockets and grabbed a pair of some short, nice black dress boots that her mom had bought her for her last birthday, that were sitting on the closet floor.

Before she left Rachel went to her dresser and pulled out a few undergarments from one of her drawers and hurried back to the taxi, where Louise was looking up the closest fabric store in the area on her phone. After Rachel got back inside the taxi her and Louise went to that store and picked out, bought four rolls of fabric, some measuring tape, a pair of scissors with some sewing supplies, and a sewing machine. Along the way between the stops, Rachel explained what had happened in the past week with her dreams and intuitions that Mr. Tophat was coming back, how he was actually alive and of course not happy with what happened to him when they all last saw him before his return, the kidnappings, the new carnival and the group's acts, their escape.. And now how she was going to make everything okay and solve everything having to do with Mr. Tophat, after she had some more intuitions and insights with her and Mr. Tophat's connections.

Louise saw the taxi driver throw a curious look over at Rachel from the rear view mirror of the taxi, like he thought that Rachel might be crazy because of her story, and than she turned back to look at Rachel, like maybe that idea wasn't too far off..

"This is crazy." Louise told Rachel, not knowing what else to say at the moment.

"But it'll all work out." Rachel said confidentially. "It has to, so many things that I've seen and felt have been directing me to this end. And in order to take care of everything once and for all, I have to follow it."

Louise saw that under Rachel's determination there was also some fear and worry behind it. But Rachel also looked ready to move ahead and not look back. Like she had made her final decision with the matter. So Louise went back with Rachel to Gavin's house and paid the taxi driver, thanking him for his help in getting them around, and helped take all of the items they had in the taxi into the house with Rachel. Everything was taken to a spare room upstairs that Gavin's dad used for storing things, and Louise stayed and waited in the room with their selections as Rachel went to the garage to check on Gavin.

Rachel opened the garage door and stepped in, seeing no one around.

"Gavin?" She called out loudly.

The driver's side door to the car Gavin was working on opened and he got out, going over to Rachel. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, how's the car?"

"Well I had to connect some things and than go through some junk in the garage before I found a plastic cone to pour the gasoline into the tank. But it's been running for a few minutes now, I think it'll make it."

"Look.." Rachel hesitated. I saw a car pass by the house a couple of times that had a guy looking this way, while I was keeping a look outside from the windows. I don't know if it's anyone that Mr. Tophat sent to look for us, but I think you should go get the supplies yourself and than head back here. I think you were right in thinking that it would be best to keep in mind about how one of us should try and stay out of being captured by not being in the same place together."